Failure Analysis in Next-Generation Critical Cellular Communication Infrastructures

TL;DR

The paper investigates failure analysis in next-generation critical cellular infrastructures, focusing on 6G and its impact on continuity, security, and availability. It develops a formal framework: defining Failure and Failure Analysis, outlining eight failure types, and proposing a standardized, stage-based engineering failure-analysis procedure tailored to 6G. It surveys 5G inheritances, identifies potential 6G failure modes across resource depletion, security, and incidental failures, and details prevention strategies and AI-enabled defenses. The work emphasizes standardization—especially for AI failures—through global initiatives and provides lessons, open challenges, and directions to guide researchers and practitioners in building resilient 6G-based critical infrastructure.

Abstract

The advent of communication technologies marks a transformative phase in critical infrastructure construction, where the meticulous analysis of failures becomes paramount in achieving the fundamental objectives of continuity, security, and availability. This survey enriches the discourse on failures, failure analysis, and countermeasures in the context of the next-generation critical communication infrastructures. Through an exhaustive examination of existing literature, we discern and categorize prominent research orientations with focuses on, namely resource depletion, security vulnerabilities, and system availability concerns. We also analyze constructive countermeasures tailored to address identified failure scenarios and their prevention. Furthermore, the survey emphasizes the imperative for standardization in addressing failures related to Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the ambit of the sixth-generation (6G) networks, accounting for the forward-looking perspective for the envisioned intelligence of 6G network architecture. By identifying new challenges and delineating future research directions, this survey can help guide stakeholders toward unexplored territories, fostering innovation and resilience in critical communication infrastructure development and failure prevention.

Figures (20)

• Figure 1: A schema of failure analysis in 6G for enhancing and promoting the construction of critical infrastructure.
• Figure 2: The taxonomy of existing works on failure in 6G corresponding to the three objectives of critical infrastructure.
• Figure 3: The structure of this survey.
• Figure 4: Recent publications on failures in 6G based on the search result from the Scopus database as of 5 January 2024, where the search keywords are ( "6G" or "6th generation" or "sixth generation") and ("failure" or "fault"), and the range is specified to be within the recent five years.
• Figure 5: The positioning of this survey with respect to the existing surveys, where the size of a circle indicates the number of papers reviewed in the corresponding survey. Different colors indicate different years of publication.